Comments:

Ordered a pound each of two different kinds of eucalyptus tree seeds, which total came to $150 including the shipping, and although we were charged for the order on our credit card, which we used instead of PayPal, we never received an acknowledgement for our order from this company.

Sent an email the next day since they ask new customers to send emails and not call, but received no reply to our email.

After 3 days we called and left a message on their answering machine, and asked them to either reply to our email, or return our phone call to let us know that they received our order, and give us an estimate of when the seeds would be shipped.

As we received no email or phone call from the place we became suspicious, so began searching the web, where we
found this very informative post.

Thanks to this site, and all of the useful information we found here, we called our credit card company, explained the situation to them, and disputed the charge.

Two days later, we now have the $150 credited back to our card. Thanks Daves Garden, and everyone who posted here.

Ordered bulk false acacia seeds in around christmas, paid with pay pal, charge went through right away. No updates, no product, no response to my requests for update. Put in a claim with paypal, WR never responded, so I escalated to dispute. These guys seem to be a fake site, or some part time hobbiest that doesn't check their orders frequently/stoppped doing business but has left the site up - I would avoid them & hope pay pal refunds my money! Why Pay Pal keeps them as a vendor, after all these negative reviews, doesn't make me feel very secure using them either.

Posted on March 11, 2013, updated March 31, 2013
I never received a VERY expensive seed order. Every time I called the voicemail number the inbox was full. Multiple emails when unanswered. I wish I would have checked here before ordering. All negative feedback is not a good sign. Here's one more negative and one more unhappy customer that will never do business with this company again.On March 31st, 2013, strawberrystore added the following:

I filed a consumer complaint with the Indiana Attorney General and let White River Source know about it. Within a week I had my order even though I wanted a refund.

In January 2011 I ordered nursery stock from WRS for which I paid in full. I have not received the items. For over a period of months, I have repeatedly tried to contact WRS through emails and phone messages, and there has been no response. The Richmond, IN, Chamber of Commerce has never heard of WRS, nor has the mayor's office. I doubt that the company actually exists, except for the purpose of defrauding the unsuspecting. Needless to say, I will never again place an order with WRS, and I strongly caution others against trying to make a purchase from them. You will be sorry.

I placed an order 2 weeks ago and repeatedly tried to get an order status from WRS per THEIR INSTRUCTIONS on their site. No responses to any email to either "service" or "shipping department" address. I confirmed earlier complaint that their stated address is only a box in a UPS store via google maps.

Apparently this was once a legitimate business, but their standard business practice is now:
1. Get order.
2. Ignore order and any customer communication attempts and wait for Paypal payment to go through.
3. Complaints to Paypal are met by company with refund and no communications.
4. Paypal closes dispute and never investigates or does anything more.

In this way they make money off forgetful and gullible people by doing basically nothing.

In my paypal complaint I urged paypal not only to get my refund but to investigate WRS's records and possibly close their account.
WRS refunded my money in less than 5 minutes after I placed the complaint, and paypal closed the dispute (IE, WRS responds immediately to paypal disputes so that they are NEVER investigated and they can continue cheating people)

They can respond within minutes to paypal, but not to direct customer communication EVER = This is clearly a scam.using a paypal loophole.

placed an seed order with this company on Mar 01/2010, paid via pay pal and then waited for 3 months - nothing arrived so I attempted to contact them via e-mail 7 times over the past 9 mos. to which they have never replied, dealing with this company is just throwing your money away!!!

Posted on May 18, 2008, updated October 16, 2010
I ordered an apple tree from White River Source September 2007. I paid via Paypal and got the Paypal receipt, but there was never any aknowledgement of my order from White River Source.

The 2008 bare root season came and went and there was no sign of the tree. I emailed the company several times, but there was never a reply. I found the company’s phone number on this web site and tried that, but you can only leave a message and (of course) you don’t ever get a reply to the message.

It looked as if I had been ripped off. I was about to write a negative comment for Dave’s Garden when an email advised me that the tree had been shipped. It arrived the next day – during a heat wave with temperatures reaching the hundreds.

The tree had a good caliber and was well rooted, and it was adequately packed. I would have been very happy, had I received it at the optimum time for planting.

Apart from the lack of timeliness in sending the tree, my complaints remain about the almost total lack of communication. Customer relations are important, especially when distances are involved. One should not have to wait in limbo for over 8 months. On October 16th, 2010, kaiapit changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following:

Now the tree has produced fruit and guess what? It is not the tree I ordered. Not even close!
Don't ever order from this company!!!!!!

These are crooks of the worst kind. Everything on their site encourages customers to order early and pay through Paypal. I ordered four peach trees in February and expected shipment in March. It's now the end of April, I've never received my order, they don't reply to e-mail or telephone, and Paypal won't let me open a dispute because it's past Paypal's 45 day cutoff. How convenient! When I call, they say leave your e-mail address if you want a reply. But no reply ever comes. Supposedly, they use an address in the town of Richmond Indiana to receive mail, but they don't give out the address of their nursery so a customer can't find them. So I'm stuck. But Richmond Indiana is less than two hours from me and I will find them. I wish I had checked the The Garden Watchdog first. I never would have ordered from them. On September 16th, 2009, ecoman1 added the following:

It's September, and I still don't have my trees. On September 18th, 2009, ecoman1 added the following:

I drove to Richmond Indiana this morning, planning to get my $120 back or extract some kind of revenge. I first drove to the Main Street address only to find that it is a UPS Store, one of those places that let's a person use a mailbox that they can refer to as a suite, so someone can make it look like they have an office when they actually don't. So when White River Source says "the Main Street address is staffed only for mail, shipping and receiving,", that is true. But there is no WRS office there. Of course, the UPS Store employee would not give out any info about the mailbox renter. Next stop was the police station. At 9:30 AM I spoke with Michelle and gave her all the info and the documents showing that I paid White River Source almost seven months ago and had received nothing. She assured me that someone would look into it. At 3:58 PM today, I received a refund through Paypal from White River Source. Hallelujah! If anyone else has been ripped off by WRS, her number is 765-983-7256.

In Feb.09 I ordered both forms or Bird of Paradise Bush seeds and payed with paypal, I waited for approximatly 2 weeks and tried to contact the company twice through email, opened a dispute though paypal hoping to receive my seeds, paypal put a hold on the payment, the company responded by closing the dispute and paypal refunded my money.My thoughts is that this company should have better customer service communications because the only response that I did receive was though paypal. This was a very disappointing experience.

I ordered 18 blueberry plants online last June (2007), but never received a confirmation of the order. I emailed a query about the status, but never heard back.

I gave it up for lost and ordered the plants elsewhere, and received them last fall.

Lo and behold, today (May 2008) a box showed up on the porch with no inspection certificates or anything denoting live plants are inside. There was no certificate of origin or inspection papers inside, and some of the berries were missing ID tags and others had lost theirs. They were poorly packed and moved around loose inside the box.

It appears someone just runs this nursery from their back yard; which is OK if you comply with agricultural regulations. But I stood a chance of having the shipment intercepted and quarantined. I also would have appreciated an acknowledgment and anticipated shipping date.